The shortened timeline for Democratic Republic of Congo is in many ways a blessing. Our kids get to come home sooner. They’ll spend less time in an orphange. We’ll fulfill our dreams sooner — perhaps even years sooner than if we would have chosen another country.

The ONLY downside of a faster timeline is the fundraising. Raising $28,000 over the course of three years is no huge challenge. Raising $28,000 over the course of 6 months is a bit more daunting. We would hate for any step, but especially the final step, to be held up because we couldn’t afford to move forward. In fact, $20,000 of the $28,000 is due near or at the end of the process — not that the process is very lengthy to begin with. 

We’ve considered many different options, from refinancing our house (not an option since the housing market downturn) to me going back into clinical practice (except that I feel called to my current job). We’ve stopped buying groceries, except for perishables like dairy and produce, and have been eating out of our grocery stockpile. We’ve tried to pick up some extra work projects here and there as well.

We’ve come to the realization that we can’t raise all of the money on our own.

But God can.

And we wholeheartedly believe that God is in charge of financing our adoption — we just need to be obedient to what He asks us to do. We are prayerfully considering what steps to take, and have sensed God’s leading in a couple of different areas, which we’ll be talking about over time.

The first fundraiser is a bit of a puzzle: literally! We want our kids to know that bringing them home was like fitting together lots of pieces of a puzzle — lots of wonderful people have invested in our family to bring us together.

We have two 300-piece puzzles, one of each of the children’s faces, and a frame with a mat to surround the puzzle. We would ask that you would consider sponsoring a puzzle piece for any amount ($10-$20 suggested). When a piece is sponsored, we’ll place it in the puzzle, and add your name to the mat surrounding the puzzle. When the puzzle is finished, we will frame the original pictures, and hang them in the children’s rooms. That way, every day we all will have the opportunity to see the hundreds of individuals, families, and groups who loved our family and helped to bring them home.

Here is one of the puzzles after last night's event!

You can sponsor a piece by donating through our ChipIn account (see Interested in Donating link to the right), or by buying coffee at our Just Love Coffee store. There is even a fundrazr application on Facebook you can donate through. Or hand us a check or cash. We’re not picky. There will be more upcoming opportunities as well.

Most of all, we would ask for your prayers, and ask you to consider how you might help us piece together all the details of finding and bringing our children home.

There are an estimated 163 million orphans in the world. Will you help make that number a little smaller?

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Update: Since losing our referral at the end of July, you may be wondering what is becoming of the puzzle project. The puzzles we purchased can actually have their images changed. So the puzzle pieces already chosen will still be a part of the new puzzle, but may be placed in a slightly different area of the puzzle.